Brett Ratner Confirmed to Direct God Of War?

Back in May, rumors ran wild that Brett Ratner might be directing a big screen adaptation of the popular video game series God of War. Bad news for video game fans, today’s MGM press release for the Robocop reboot contained the following juicy tidbit:

“David Self’s credits include 13 Days and Road To Perdition. He wrote God of War for Universal, to which Brett Ratner is attached to direct, and was a writer on Universal’s Wolfman currently in production.”

Is this official confirmation that Ratner is officially attached to the project? We hope not.

Max Payne Shot at 1000 Frames Per Second

Mark Wahberg, Mila Kunis, Ludacris, and Director John Moore (The Omen, Behind Enemy Lines) were in attendance to premiere Max Payne footage at the Fox panel at Comic Con.

During the Panel, John Moore kept repeating how important it was for him to stay as subjective to Max Payne’s character as possible. He believed once you take away the controller from the player, you better make it as personal to the audience as you can. Moore’s reasoning is that when you play the game the whole reason to play it is to feel like you’re a part of the story.

If you’re a fan of the game, you would be excited of what we had the privilege to witness. For instance, one scene involved Max Payne following some “junkies” into a subway system. As he passed them, they were sitting on a bench, he took a right into the bathroom. The next thing we saw was Payne looking into the mirror, he noticed the reflection behind him were the junkies. A shootout soon took place inside the bathroom, if anyone has played just the beginning of the game, the set were this taking place will seem very familiar.

Some other perks from the game, has Max Pax Payne narrating how he feels, using very dark metaphorical dialogue, but making it as simple sounding as it can, giving the feeling like you’re listing to someone read a comic book.

The last thing we were shown was a 3 minute highlight reel of the movie. It started with a zoomed shot of a barrel of a handgun, then with the same single shot started zooming back, until you saw Mark Walhberg standing holding the gun in in a alleyway while it was snowing. It went on with Led Zeppelin’s “Candy Store Rock” blasting in the background and seeing quick clips of various gun fights and showing different characters Max Payne will encounter, including dream sequence that are involved with the game. It ended with with a scene showing Max Payne holding a hostage in a office with an swat team of about ten, holding guns pointing to Payne. He throws the hostage to the ground and a fire fight ensues. Payne on one side of the room, the swat team on the other. Max Payne then tries to sneak to the other side of the room, ducking and dodging bullets by using the office desks as cover. At one point the emergency sprinklers go off, giving the firefight a little beauty to the scene.

At the end of the firefight, we see Max Payne dive, while shooting at a door to unlock it. The clip then slows down, using a bullet time effect much like what the game does. John Moore briefly discussed how they achieved bullet time. by Using a hard drive called Phantom. Phantom is a machine that can record video at 1000 Frames per second, which gives the effect of slowing down time time to the thousandth degree. The effect gives a smooth rendition of what the game does so well.

All in all, the movie has beautiful cinematic shots but the question remains, will the story be worth watching? Again, they seemed to keep the simple dialogue from the game, I’m not sure how well that will translate for a full movie.

Wolverine Surprises Fans at Comic Con: Trailer Features Gambit, Deadpool, Blob, and More

In an entirely unprecedented move, Hugh Jackman burst onto the scene at Comic Con after having flown straight from Australia, with filming on Wolverine literally finishing up just this past week. He announced that he just had to reveal to the real fans (without whom he claims he “wouldn’t have a career”) what the movie would be like, offering up the first ever seen trailer/footage.

Naturally, this caused an onslaught of applause from audience members.

The trailer kicks off with Wolverine and Sabertooth in a prison cell. They get taken outside, strapped to posts, and shot to hell by a firing squad. “What did that feel like?” a man asks. Wolverine responds: “It tickled.”

Cut to a shot of Wolverine strutting cheesily to the camera as a truck explodes behind him. Marvel logo fades onscreen.

Then Major William Stryker announces himself to both Sabertooth and Wolverine, discussing the prospect of putting a special team together. Interspersed between this are shots of them running through the woods with full-fledged animal ferocity, being surrounded by a group of soldiers in a circle while amping up to kick some ass, and then the clincher, a shot of Deadpool posing for the camera with his two samurai swords.

Wolverine tells Sabertooth that this wasn’t the program he signed up for. We see him being hooked into place inside the adamantium-injecting machine and thrashing about in the water. He bursts out of it in a blaze of anger and roars at the camera, his claws bursting out of his hands while he does it. Bodies drop as Wolverine slashes in every direction.

A handful of cards are tossed toward the screen, and the camera pans to reveal none other than Gambit holding his electrically-enhanced staff.

More quick shots: a child Wolverine (?) screams with his claws burst out of his hands, Sabertooth lunges across the ground like an animal and attacks Wolverine in what looks like a small snippet of a much larger battle, Wolverine gets clobbered in a boxing ring by the massive Blob, Wolverine goes one-on-one with Gambit, and a mysterious girl begins to have electricity sparkle all throughout her body.

Before you can even begin to recognize all the quick shots of your favorite comic book characters, a final set of clips shows off a very cool-looking set piece with Wolverine facing off on his motorcycle against a truck, and eventually climaxes with him launching thirty feet in the air onto a helicopter.

The title shoots on screen: X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Finishing off the footage, Wolverine looks at Saberooth and quips, “I’m gonna cut your goddamn head off; see if that works.”

Out of the clips shown, there appears to be a lot going for and against this movie. Towards the beginning of the footage, the cheese factor was through the roof, feeling more on par with Ratner’s X-Men than Singer’s. Later on though, the mere presence of characters like Gambit and Deadpool immediately picked up the excitement factor several notches. What we got to see from the action sequences only furthered this excitement, confirming that even if the film doesn’t offer much in terms of emotional/dramatic tension or strong storytelling, it will at least amount to a whole lot of action-packed fun.

Max Payne Movie Posters

Two new one-sheets for the adaptation of Rockstar Games‘ Max Payne have popped up at Dark Horizons. When the film’s trailer hit a few weeks ago, hardcore fans of the game shot poison-tipped arrows at the curious presence of nappy angel-looking entities. The spiffier poster after the jump will probably draw a similar response: Max Payne vs Jeepers Creepers, ftw. Meanwhile, the spiffier poster on the right has subtle shades of Sin City, evokes the video game box art, and also reminds me of the NYC street art of WK Interact (check it out).

Discuss: A PG-13 Max Payne. Will this be the choice action flick of the fall, or will it be the R-rated Punisher: War Zone? Or, neither? Also, Angels in the Outfield.

Three The Earth Stood Still Clips Revealed at Comic Con; Gort Confirmed

The Day The Earth Stood Still director Scott Derrickson, star Keanu Reeves, and producer Erwin Stoff opened the first major panel of Comic Con 2008. Here are the three things I learned about The Day The Earth Stood Still remake from the panel:

Erwin Stoff actually proposed the idea f a Day The Earth Stood Still Remake to a producer shortly after the release of Speed, but a regime change prevented the project from developing into a film until nearly 15 years later.

Derrickson confirmed that Gort is definitely in the movie. He claims they went through hundreds of different possibilities in the conceptual stage but came back to something that wasn’t very different from the Gort from the original film. Weta is still working on the design.

Klatu’s spaceship and suit is more organic than technological.

They also showed three clips from the film. I have to admit that I wasn’t very impressed by the previously released movie trailer, and the new footage didn’t get me any more excited.

The first clip began with Klatu, played by Keanu Reeves, being wheeled through a dark hallway into an US government interrogation room where he is hooked up to some kind of lie detecting equipment and questioned by an official.

“Are you Human?” the interrogator asks.

“My body is…” Klatu responds.

“Do you feel pain?”

“My body does…”

“Are you aware of a pending attack on the US?”

“You should let me go…”

Klatu takes control on the interrogator and finds out which exit to escape the building. He then sends out a signal which disables all the guards. They all fall to the ground.

The second clip was a much smaller innocent scene between Klatu and Jaden Smith’s character Jacob in the back of a pick-up truck.

“You aren’t so scary,” says Jacob. ” You don’t even look like an alien….”

Klatu responds: “Its so i can talk to you…”

“What were you before?”

“Klatu…

“I told helen we should kill you…”

“Did you mean it?”

“Before….”

“Whats gonna happen to us?”

“I was thinking the same thing.”

The third clip was more of a highlight reel / extended trailer comprised of half finished special effects shots and clips from the film. Someone from the US government shows up to Connely’s door.

“Dr Bensson come with us, Everything will be explained on route.”

Helen is told not to be afraid. Cut to a Connely watching the interrogation from behind a two way mirror. Klatu takes control of the government official.

Big balls of light descent upon earth in various cities worldwide. The usual shots of people looking up at the sky. A big ball of liquid rises from the oceans. Connoly in hazmat suit. Cut to the scene in the trailer where Klatu tells Connely that “If the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the Earth survives.”

Smoke overtakes huge truck tearing it apart. Same thing happens with a stadium. The electricity in a major city goes out. And the ending shot is a tease of Gort, but much like the trailer, we don’t see much of anything.

And finally the clip ended with Jaden Smith’s character asking Klatu “What’s gonna happen to us”.

Google vrea sa dea pe Digg 200 de milioane de dolari

Google s-a aflat in negocieri in ultimele sase sapatamani cu portalul Digg. Mai multe surse din Google au declarat ca a fost semnata chiar si o scrisoare de intentie in privinta achizitionarii portalului Digg, iar oferta facuta de Google pentru trecerea Digg in proprietatea Google News a fost de 200 de milioane de dolari.

Prima informatie despre negocierile dintre cele doua companii a ajuns in presa in luna martie a acestui an, conform TechCrunch. Si compania Microsoft a fost interesata de cumpararea portalului Digg insa, se pare ca oferta celor de la Microsoft a fost mai mica decat cea facuta de Google.
Capitalul portalului Digg a ajuns la peste 11, 3 milioane de dolari. Site-ul a fost lansat in anul 2004 si continutul sau este creat numai de catre utilizatori.

Boondock Saints 2 Plot Revealed

It’s been four months since Troy Duffy announced that a Boondock Saints sequel had officially been given the green light. The video of the announcement was removed from Troy’s website within hours of going live. Troy appeared on WJFK 106.7 and confirmed that “barring an actors strike” the film is scheduled to go into production in August. Duffy revealed the plot of the second film:

“You kind of wonder what has happened to the brothers… They have been living way back in the valleys of Ireland with their father on a family run sheep farm, way beyond the reach of technology or men. Way out there. It’s been sort of a bucolic existence, hard working pioneer-esque type stuff. They have long hair and beards, and stuff like that. You get the sense that they’ve been hibernating to come back. And there is an event that transpires in Boston. A priest murdered in a church and the body is rigged to make it look like the Saints did it. The one guy that the brothers and father have contact with is Il Duce’s brother. So he gets the first notion of this, puts his jeep in gear and tells the brothers what happened. And without even thinking of it the boys are up and out of there … they cut their hair, digg up their rosaries, strap on their guns, and they’re gone! And Dad has to stay back because something is wrong with him, and you can tell he doesn’t have much time left. So when the brothers smuggle themselves back to the US, back to Boston, in a very understandable way. And one of the guys they meet along the way is a Hispanic American named Romeo. And Romeo ends up becoming like the third brother or saint, fourth I guess if you’re gonna consider Billy. He’s a lot more of a bad ass than Rocco was. But his comedy is that he wants to be a lot more a part of this. So there is a lot of humor that comes from that. He’s hopefully going to be played by a friend of mine named Clifton Collins, who was in Capote and Frankie Flowers in Traffic.”

“When they land they basically start killing everything that they think is responsible for that priest’s death. And Romeo has a connection to the Hispanic underground in Boston, which over the last ten years has become pretty exceptional. That is how they are finding their information this time, instead of from Rocco in the first one. So, we’ve got some great set pieces, some big gun play and new types of stunts. But, right off the bat, we have the same three detectives back. And they are confronted … because Williem is not going to be in the second one… He is dead right off the top, and his protege, she is named Unis Bloom, she is a George peach. She’s got that doc holiday accent, super super sexy. So she’s the one going after the saints and now working with these three officers. And she’s FBI. Now immediately, the cops from the first film, they were all in on it. They helped the saints at the end of the day, they crossed over to the dark side. And they don’t know if she knows or not. That’s something we play with throughout the film. There is no love interest by the way. A lot of people hear there is going to be a female lead in Boondock and think there is going to be some kind of love interest… don’t worry about that… That’s not happening. It’s a way to throw a curb-ball at the audience.” … “So for my money, you can’t just give them everything they loved from the first one. You have to give them a new story. She is that new story. She is one hell of a firecracker. She starts going with the cops, and this helps preserve something I loved about Boondocks 1, and fans have remarked about. Billy’s character Il Duce is the third act. He blasts the story wide open. And because we’re keeping him in Ireland, he gets to do the same thing here. He comes back in the third act. The brothers, everything you think is going on, isn’t going on. Here’s the guy that did this. And it ends up being an old guy who has a connection to Billy. And you sort of figure out where this has all been going. And we go into a period flashback and we explain how Il Duce got to be Il Duce.” … “all the way to the point where he makes the first version of that leather vest.”

“Rocco is actually coming back in a dream sequence, so you will see Roc.”

You can listen to Part 1 and Part 2 of the interview on wjfk.com. Geeks of Doom also has the first production dairy from the upcoming production. I’m excited for a sequel, but am still skeptical as to if the production will actually happen or not. I’ll believe it when the first day of principle photography begins.

Xbox Pro mai ieftin cu 50 de dolari

Deja de ceva vreme se aud zvonuri ca Xbox va suferi o reasezare de pret pentru a creste vanzarile.
Microsoft au fost foarte secretosi de aceasta data si singurele confirmari veneau de la diferite afise comerciale ce declarau aceasta iminenta scadere, iar acum, o nota interna a prestigiosului magazin “GameStop” arata ca pe data de 13 Iulie va deveni efectiva modificarea de pret.

Pe langa reducerea de 50 de dolari ( de la 349 la 299), cumparatorilor li se va oferi si un cadou suplimentar de 25 de dolari, dar partea interesanta este ca cel mai slab Xbox (Xbox Core) acum costa 279 de dolari drept pentru care nu se va mai vinde deloc, iar Microsoft va trebui sa-I reduca si acestuia pretul, probabil undeva in jur de 200 de dolari

Sursa: DailyTech

Fujitsu HandyDrive 500Gb

Fujitsu a prezentat ultimul HDD portabil de 2.5 inch cu capacitatea de jumatate de Terabyte. Acesta prezinta avantajul fata de multe alte dispozitive similare de pe piata ca atat transferul de date cat si alimentarea cu energie electrica se realizeaza exclusiv pe cablul USB si nu necesita alimentare separata.

Caracteristicile tehnice:
• Capacitate: 500Gb
• Viteza de rotatie: 4200RPM
• Buffer: 8Mb
• Rata de transfer: 60Mb/s
• Dimensiuni: 141 x 82 x 22 mm

Va fi disponibil din luna Iulie la pretul de 830 ron

Sursa: FSC